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[Aug. 19th, 2009|06:17 pm] |
Jacob was reading one of the books about babies Wendell had given him. Even though the wolf was the omega, he had a way of being insistant about certain things in such a way that he made others do them. He was downstairs in Kinley's house, curled up comfortably on the couch. Babies sounded like a lot of damn work, but at least everything was ready for their son.
The contractions had started earlier in the afternoon and Kinley had suffered in silence. The baby wasnt' due for another two and a half weeks and she was determined to ignore the fact that the little shit was trying to come early. There were such things as Braxton Hicks contractions. They were what had put her into bed in the first place. But they went from being twenty minutes apart. To ten minutes apart. To six. And then her water broke and it was all over. Getting up from the bed, she waddled over to the door and leaned against the frame. "Jacob!" she felt like she had just wet herself and really this was probably the worst fucking moment of her life, or at least she was convinced of it right that second.
Even though Jacob had never been around a baby on the way, he could sense it the moment it became critical. But he second guessed himself and didn't rush up to Kinley until she cried out for him. Oh god. He found her and just stared, clearly terrified. He wanted to yell out for Wendell or Morgan, but his vocal cords wouldn't work. Hospital. It was a good 15 minute drive into town. "Kinley," he breathed. "What--where--I don't know what to do!"
Kinley had her hand on her stomach and she looked over her shoulder back into the room. "Okay, get my overnight bag and then we can..." Her words were caught off by a cry as she leaned forward, the contractions alarmingly painful and she hadn't entirely expected that. "Get my overnight bag and I need to get down to the car. I'm not having this kid here."
"Bag, right!" He pointed at her like she was the smartest thing in the room right now--which she probably was. He scrambled to find the bag and started to run downstairs without her. He paused and whipped around. "Need you too," he noted and went quickly to hook his arm around hers.
"Yeah, that would be pretty fucking important at this point." She walked down the stairs with him and was screaming again by the time they got to the bottom of them. At this rate every single person in all of the haven was going to be aware of the fact that the baby was coming.
Wendell was currently flying on long legs to the sounds of the cries. Jacob helped her down the stairs, nearly carrying her. He could nearly feel the contractions wracking her body as they washed over her and he stared in a mixture of admiration and horror. PaRt of him screamed that he couldn't fucking handle this. But as he saw Wendell in the doorway he breathed a sigh of relief. The two of them were far from alone.
Kinley was relieved to see Wendell even though he had annoyed her a little at first. He knew what was going on and even though his wealth of knowledge had seemed bothersome before, right now she needed it. "Are you coming with?" She asked as they stepped out of the house. Everett was there too, shirtless and barefoot because he had come running as soon as she started screaming. His hair was a mess and he had his glasses on instead of his contacts, which meant he'd been sleeping or writing when this whole thing started.
Jacob was surprised to see Ever and he paused to stare at him. It made his heart skip a beat in a grateful way. Wendell nodded. "Yes, certainly. I suspect I might be the best to drive." Though it was clear that Wendell was reeling from excitement and couldn't contain the giddy energy that was rolling off of him. Jacob handed Wen the keys and helped Kinley to the car, doing his best to help her breathe. After a second, he shot Ever a hopeful look, begging him to come.
Without even a second thought, Everett got into the car with them, helping Kinley scoot in to the middle so that she was sitting between both him and Jacob. He took her free hand and she squeezed his fingers tightly even though they had only met once and it hadn't been on the friendliest of terms. "I hate you, Jacob. I hate you and your potent fucking semen."
He so didn't want to think about the act that had gotten them into this. "Your eggs aren't so bad themselves," he responded as he smoothed her hair back from her face. He had the feeling he was going to get brutalized by the time this was over. Wendell drove sensibly, but very quickly, knowing the stretches of road where he could safely speed.
"I hate you!" She shrieked at him and Everett tried not to groan. The high pitched noises were particularly bothersome to those with sensitive hearing and he wanted to beg her not to do that again but he knew better than to provoke her while she was in labor. Instead he squeezed her hand gently and looked at Jacob, not sure what else to do.
Jacob's cheeks were flushed from nerves, fear. All of the smells were overwhelming and there was nothing in the world that could calm his nerves. The ride drug out forever, and Jacob was really starting to think that Kinley would kill him once she was done getting the kid out. He glanced at Everett and there had never been more fear etched on his face. Finally, Wendell pulled into the ambulance section and hopped out to get a wheelchair for Kinley.
Everett got out first and he helped Jacob get Kinley out of the car. She was trying to control her breathing but everytime a contraction hit she cried out curses in Jacob's direction and when the ystarted getting bad just at anyone who was in her line of sight.
Wendell hardly flinched at her epithets as he wheeled her inside. Jacob trailed behind. "She hates me. What in the hell am I even doing here. I can't do this." He muttered. Wendell helped fill out the admissions forms quickly and before they knew it, Kinley was being wheeled into a room. The baby was coming very fast.
"She doesn't hate you, she'sj ust in pain." Everett took Jacob's hand and he laced their fingers together as they followed Kinley and the nurse into the room. They put her in a hospital gown and then got her settled onto the bed before the doctor came in to check on her. Everett watched with interest as the doctor helped her prop her knees up and he even tilted his head to the side a little bit before the doctor's hand went up between her knees tocheck her dialiation ."Oh my god what is he doing..." Everett asked as he looked over at Jacob. Okay, so maybe he should have expected that but it just shocked him.
He blinked a few times, pushing away the urge to slap the doctor's hand away. "His job. Get it out of her!" He offered his instructions to the doctor as Wendell was being far too nosy with the procedure. He'd gone off into some story about how the stirrups were originally used by King Henry so that he could watch the birth of what he hoped would be a son. Jacob squeezed his eyes shut.
"Wendell please stop talking and please for the love of god stop watching!" Kinely shouted at him. Everett just reached out and tugged Wendell over to the side of the bed where he and Jacob were standing. The doctor called in another nurse so that they could give Kinley an epidural, though something started going wrong by the time she got there and plans were quickly changing.
Wendell did her bidding very quickly and observed the doctor and nurses instead. Jacob frowned. "What's going on? What's the matter?" His question was directed at the room, begging for anyone to take pity on him and give him an update.
"The baby is in distress." The doctor said. The sound of the heart monitor they had put on Kinley started going crazy as her heart rate elevated even higher. "We need to get the baby out of her, we're going to have to do an emergency c-section." She wasn't dialated far enough to push.
Jacob reached out for Kinley's hand, terrified of what that meant for her. For some reason he hadn't considered the possibility of a c section. Wendell hadn't either and he tried to go through all of the births he knew about to see if he remembered any being like that. Leave it to their boy to be so difficult. They started to wheel her away into surgery and Jacob kept hold of her hand.
Finley was scared. For the first time she was really really scared that something wasn't going to go right. "Jacob." he said softly, her eyes on him as he held her hand. "What's wrong? What's wrong with our baby?" The first time she referred to it as theirs and not just hers.
Jacob put his fingers through her hair, following the bed as they moved her. The scent of fear was heavy on the people helping them and he wished he wasn't able to smell it. "It'll be okay. He'll be fine." He knew the constitution of the baby was very strong, but he worried about Kinley. "But they have to get him out now. Right now. Just breathe, okay?"
Finley just nodded and she kept a hold of his hands. "I'm getting dizzy." She told him, her fingers loosening up a little bit but she didn't let go. "Are you sure Parker's going to be okay?" She wasn't thinking about herself, she was just thinking about Parker.
Parker. His heart leapt in a little thrill at the name. "Yes, I'm sure. You'll be okay too." He didn't like how she was just concerned about the baby, as if she'd die for him. He hadn't met Parker yet, but he loved Kinley. They wouldn't let Wendell and Ever into the operating room, but theyy let Jacob scrub up and go inside as they prepped her.
By the time Jacob got there Kinley was already feeling pretty out of it. They had tucked all of her long red hair back into a cap and she reached for his hand, needing something to hold onto while all of this went down. "I can't see anything."
He didn't know if that meant something terrible. He knew about animals, but far too little about humans. Instead, he just squeezed her hand as they worked. A curtain had been hung between them and what was going on down below, but god he could smell and hear all of it. He looked at her vital signs on the monitor and laid a kiss on her forehead. "It'll be okay, I promise. It has to be."
They had put a sheet up to keep her from looking down and seeing the blood, so she had no idea what was going on. The whole thing took less than a few minutes, and soon enough Parker's cries could be heard as the doctor lifted him out of Kinley. When she heard his crying she squeezed Jacob's hand and she tried to lift her head to see him.
The cries were strong and Jacob blinked. "He has lungs," he noted, craning his head around for a glimpse. When he caught sight of the wailing, red thing, Jacob's heart jumped into his throat. He stared and frowned and sucked in a breath.
The nurses rushed him off to get him cleaned up while the doctors set to work putting Kinley back together again. She was still feeling really dizzy but she ignored it in favor of trying to see her boy. "What does he look like."
"Like a giant kidney bean." Because that's just what he looked like. It was probably the wrong thing to say, but it was Jacob after all. He kissed Kinley's forehead. "Definitely looks like you."
Kinley laughed softly and when the nurse brought Parker around she just started crying. They helped prop her up slightly and she let go of Jacob's hand to take the little boy.
He'd never quite seen her like that before and he stared, a bit starstruck. He glanced between the two of them. "You named him Parker," Jacob said quietly.
"Yeah." Kinley held the tiny little guy in his arms and he had calmed down almost as soon as he was wrappe up and given to her. She couldn't help but smile as she looked down at him. "Parker Monroe Calder." Because Monroe was her last name, but she thought it made a good middle name.
Jacob liked the sound of it and he reached out to touch the boy. Sliding his fingers gently over his cheeks, he laughed. "This is so bizzare," he said quietly. They'd made this. All he could think about was begging the baby not to grow up to hate him.
"He's perfect." Even if he looked like a kidney bean. "He's perfect. I'm sorry I told you I hated you, I don't." She'd just been in a lot of pain and now she wasj ust high.
"I'm holding you to that." He was relieved that Ever had been right. "I love you," he said honestly. Kinley was moved to a non-surgical room then and encouraged to rest. She'd need to stay longer than the usual delivery. They took Parker for his workups and Wendell assured them that they would all be normal at this stage of life.
Kinely was resting but she refused to be alone, so she tried to convince the doctors and nurses to let Jacob and the other two stay with her. Everett just sat off to the side, staying there for Jacob, but he kept mostly out of the way.
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